Afghan Soldiers, Besieged by Taliban, Say They Are Outgunned

An Afghan special forces soldier searched a passenger at a checkpoint in Ghazni Province this month.Credit
Rahmatullah Alizadah/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Even as they wage a widespread northern offensive, the Taliban have been mounting a multifront attack on two southern Afghan provinces in recent weeks, besieging several districts simultaneously and deeply straining Afghan security forces who in many cases have been surrounded and cut off from resupply, officials say.

Thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers have been struggling to keep the Taliban out of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province. Last week, the fighting came within five miles of the provincial capital. The situation was similar in Uruzgan Province, which borders Helmand to the northwest, according to local officials.

“The Afghan security forces have not made progress in the past seven days of fierce fighting,” said Hajji Mohammad Omar, a member of the Nad Ali district council; Nad Ali district borders the Helmand provincial capital, which appears to be the Taliban’s goal.

Control of Helmand is as much an economic prize as a strategic one because the province accounts for nearly half the opium poppy cultivation in the country, according to United Nations surveys. The province has long been a stronghold for the Taliban, and it was a major focus of the American troop surge several years ago that was aimed at making the district and provincial capitals safer.

From 50 to 60 police officers were killed in the fight for Nad Ali over just a few days, said a police commander in the district who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was under instructions not to speak to reporters. This month, 16 or 17 members of the Afghan security forces were killed fighting in Marja district, another former American surge area that borders Lashkar Gah to the west, said Basir Ahmad Shakir, a member of Helmand’s provincial council.

The details of the battles sweeping up to important district centers were as grim as the death toll. In telephone interviews, Afghan soldiers and their officers described feeling abandoned by their government, often left with only scant supplies of ammunition and fuel, their situation increasingly desperate in the face of Taliban fighters who seem to have grown in number.

TURKMENISTAN

Kunduz

AFGHANISTAN

Kabul

URUZGAN

Lashkar

Gah

Kandahar

HELMAND

PAKISTAN

KANDAHAR

150 miles

OCT. 30, 2015

By The New York Times

“We do not have heavy weapons to use against the enemy,” said one major whose Afghan Army unit is fighting in Uruzgan. “Now the enemy has more modern and heavy weapons than us.”

“Another problem we are facing is a lack of logistical and air support: When our posts are attacked and surrounded by the enemy, we do not have helicopters to get supplies or weapons,” he added. “In the entire brigade we have only two helicopters and they are being used for Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand and Daikundi Provinces, and it takes at least five to six days before it is our turn.”

Several soldiers in Helmand and Uruzgan described watching their friends bleed to death from bullet wounds because there were no medical evacuation helicopters, which was a major function provided by American forces before the end of the NATO combat mission in 2014. Some said they felt demoralized by having to fight beside their comrades’ decomposing bodies, or by having to leave the bodies behind as they retreated.

“We need planes or helicopters to evacuate the dead soldiers from the battlefield so that they are not left for the enemy,” said Ghafar Khan, a soldier who was stationed at the Camp Bastion base in Helmand. It was his second major combat posting this year, after spending eight months encircled and in harsh circumstances in Sangin District in northern Helmand.

“We know Afghanistan is a poor country and relies on aid from other countries, and we can tolerate almost any lack of services,” he said. “We can fight on an empty stomach, live in hardship and spend more time in the trenches. But it is hard to watch your friends dying in front of you while you are powerless to help them.”

The spokesman for the Afghan Defense ministry, Gen. Dawlat Waziri, denied allegations of logistical failures. “Each unit is allocated a specific amount of fuel and food which they receive on time,” he said. “There is no problem here.”

He also categorically denied that there was any delay in removing the bodies of dead soldiers. “It is not possible to leave the body of a martyred soldier on the ground for one week,” he said. “We have helicopters flying all the time to transfer bodies and to aid those wounded in the fighting.”

He added: “I admit that sometimes when the weather is bad or rainy a dead body can wait for one day or sometimes longer to be transferred, but not for a week; I also admit that there are shortcomings in what we do, but that is because currently we are in a state of war.”

In sheer numbers, the Afghan Army and police have an indisputable edge over the Taliban — as they did in the northern city of Kunduz before it fell to the insurgents at the end of September. But the numbers have not translated into strength on the battlefield.

Analysts say the insurgents have had success because of a combination of poor leadership and entrenched corruption on the part of some Afghan security force commanders, which deprives some soldiers and police of ammunition, fuel and food.

“There is huge demoralization at all levels that derives from corruption, from nepotism, because a bunch of corrupt commanders are selling weapons, selling ammunition, selling the fuel,” said Ali Mohammad Ali, a security analyst in Kabul.

As they have sought to take and hold territory this year, the Taliban have also been capitalizing on the effects of years of hit-and-run tactics and local intimidation. The insurgents have become particularly adept at forcing surrenders, including the handover of weapons and vehicles. Using a combination of fear, sometimes achieved by killing a few hostages by example, and offers of safe passage if government security forces give up, they have been able to gain ground without actually fighting.

Col. Dad Gul Toorylai, deputy for the Uruzgan Afghan National Army Garrison, said surrender by the police was a major problem. “I can confidently say that in Uruzgan Province, 198 police check posts have been abandoned to the Taliban,” the colonel said. In many cases, he said, the police left their ammunition behind as the insurgents advanced.

In the case of Uruzgan, he said there were many factors at work in the surrenders, including frustration by the police with the appointment of a new police chief whom they did not like after the assassination of the previous chief, Matiullah Khan.

In some cases, government forces have eventually been able to take back the ground they ceded to the Taliban. However, the back and forth almost always benefits the Taliban since they show they can take the area and undermine the population’s trust in the government forces.

During the Taliban’s recent takeover of Kunduz, the insurgents managed to force irregular militia fighters to give up the Bala Hisar, the main fort in the city, and leave their weapons and ammunition behind.

“We fought the Taliban from the Bala Hisar for two days, and in these two days we called up senior officials and said, ‘Send us support and reinforcements,’ ” said a militia officer, Commander Hafeez, who had 35 of his men in the fort. “But they didn’t. So one of our commanders reached out to someone in the Taliban he knew and told him, ‘Take all our weapons but don’t kill us.’ ”

The men handed their weapons to the son of a local Taliban commander. In exchange, Commander Hafeez said, the insurgents transported his men out of Kunduz and allowed them to flee to a neighboring province.

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, and Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul. Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul, and an employee of The New York Times contributed from Kunduz.

A version of this article appears in print on October 31, 2015, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Afghan Forces Straining to Repel Taliban Attacks. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe